Power Up

Following the 2014 album Rock or Bust, the group embarked on a seventeen-month world tour. Prior to the tour, drummer Phil Rudd was charged with attempting to procure murder, threatening to kill, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of cannabis. For the tour, Rudd was replaced by Chris Slade who had also previously played with AC/DC on their 1990 album The Razors Edge, several years after Rudd first left the band. Mentions of Rudd were also scrubbed from the band's website as well. By 2016, lead singer Brian Johnson had started to suffer hearing loss, which he attributed not to 36 years of touring, but to his love of racecars. This caused the final ten dates of the Rock or Bust tour to be rescheduled. Ultimately, he was replaced with Guns N' Roses vocalist Axl Rose for the remaining dates. On 8 July, 2016, bassist Cliff Williams announced that he would be retiring from the band once the tour was finished, citing health issues as reasons for retiring, and calling AC/DC a "changed animal". Two years later, rumours began circulating that AC/DC were working on their seventeenth studio album, with Johnson, Rudd, and Williams having returned to the group. Johnson, Rudd, Angus Young and Stevie Young were photographed in August of 2018 at Warehouse Studio, a recording studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada owned by fellow musician Bryan Adams, suggesting the band were working where they had recorded their three previous albums. Later confirmed, it was also stated that the album had been recorded there over a six-week period in August and September 2018 with producer Brendan O'Brien (who also worked on 2008's Black Ice and 2014's Rock Or Bust) with some tweaking having followed in early 2019. Every track is credited to Angus and Malcolm Young as Angus raided the AC/DC vault of unreleased songs to record the album. Power Up is the first album since 1985's Fly on the Wall to not include a track containing the word "rock" in the title. It is also the first album since 1988's Blow Up Your Video to not include a title track. Title The band's website had several references with the name PWRUP, initially hinting at that being the album's title. On 29 September 2020, Ultimate Classic Rock also hinted at it being the album's title, especially after a poster was spotted in front of Angus Young's old school with the name. In early October 2020, the band's official website published a series of photographs of several different posters displayed in different cities (from different countries) – such as Ashfield (in front of Angus Young's Ashfield Boys High School), Lille, London and Dallas – featuring the writing "PWR/UP" (stylised as PWRϟUP), leading to another speculation that it would be the title of the new album. On 7 October 2020, after "Shot in the Dark" was released, AC/DC confirmed on their official website and social media that the album would be called Power Up and that it would be available for pre-order on CD, vinyl, cassette and a deluxe-edition box set. The album title "Power Up" does not appear on the front cover, except as "PWR/UP" (stylised as "PWRϟUP") on the left and right amps.